10 yr old w/ sore shoulder

Why don't you have him checked out ? It may be nothing but likely it is. The body hurts for a reason.

mr19, Welcome to the HSBBW.
Do you allow your son to throw curve balls at this age?
10 yr olds should throw FB and change-up's only IMO.
The curve not thrown properly causes problem's.
Arms are still Growing/Developing at this age till at least 15 to 16 yrs. old.
Tell your son to tell you when his arm is sore.
They never want to say anything, cause they might miss playing time. Go Figure.
EH

quote:

Originally posted by mr19:
Hi all. I have a 10 yr old pitcher who has had a sore shoulder for about a week. Probably has < 200 pitches on the year but complained about the should the morning after his last outing. (Said his shoulder hurt after the prior outing but didn't mention it to anyone). Says it only bothers him when he throws hard (nothing else has changed, still see him throwing the football/baseball around with friends and in general acting like your average 10 yr old).

Any ideas? As a former college pitcher who had major shoulder surgery I'm a little paranoid about having someone endure what I did. I'm assuming rest is the best course at this point but it's tough to get a 10 yr old to not play with his friends during the summer (I have however cut him out of the rotation until things improve).

Have you taken him to see a doctor? If not, you should.

The root cause could be a variety of things, including an inflammation of one of the growth plates caused by overuse.

Also, how many months per year and games per year does he play?

If a week of rest doesn't eliminate the soreness, straight to the doc... And I'm assuming you mean soreness as opposed to pain. If you want to play it safe, then get him to the doc now.

I would shut him down (from any/all throwing), and take him to an orthopedist.

I am not a doctor, but I suspect he has a SALTER-HARRIS (type 2) fracture of the growth plate in his throwing shoulder. This is common enough that it is also known as "little league arm".

You probably already know some of this, BUT kids have soft tissue in the middle of joints, known as the "physis". This is to allow for expansion and growth as kids grow. What happens is due to shoulder overuse is that the joint gets seperated and misaligned, and thats what causes the pain. If the aformentioned is the diagnosis, most doctors will prescribe 6-8 weeks of no-throwing and will send you to a physical therapist to teach the kid exercises to strengthen the small "decelerator" muscles on the back of the shoulders. Most growth plates close between the ages of 15 and 17.

One other note...
Once healthy this will be the time to stress proper mechanics that will take stress off of the arm/shoulder. The most important mechanics (for this) are off course a) keeping the front shoulder closed to the target and not "flying open", and b) letting the trunk and hip rotation "drive" the arm...and not simply "slinging" the ball with the arm.

Last...
is your son doing a lot of both pitching and CATCHING?? In my experience, young kids who are either pitching AND catching all of the time are more suceptible to these type of injuries.

Important Links...
http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/generalinfo4/a/salterharris.htm
http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic613.htm

quote:

The root cause could be a variety of things, including an inflammation of one of the growth plates caused by overuse.

You have received great advice - my son at about 11 complained of soreness and I would ice him down and stuff - 3 weeks later, after pitching through allstars up to regionals we got him to see an ortho - it was growth plates and he was in a cast for 3 weeks - I have never felt so guilty for not listening in my life.....it also happened during summer - turns out he was playing ball (football, baseball, etc) all day when I was at work - he was throwing a lot more then I knew of. Shut him down, see the Doctor, and if turns out it was nothing he will be mad at you for a day or two

Thanks for all the good advice. I'll try to answer a few of the questions.

I have had him shutdown since he told me of the soreness. What he initially described to me as soreness he now calls pain. He has not caught at all this season, mostly IF when not pitching. Our season is almost over (~ 25 games) with all-stars around the corner. He plays about 5 months out of the year. He has spun a few curves (go easy on me) but received "the talk" after his last outing (prior to knowing about the soreness/pain). I'm a big changeup proponent -- mainly because of the effectiveness of the pitch -- but this will be added ammo in my backing.

I'll be calling my ortho on Mon. to schedule an appt. Hopefully it's just irritation/inflamation but we'll see.

Prayers from one baseball guy to another!

quote:

Originally posted by mr19:
Thanks for all the good advice. I'll try to answer a few of the questions.

I have had him shutdown since he told me of the soreness. What he initially described to me as soreness he now calls pain. He has not caught at all this season, mostly IF when not pitching. Our season is almost over (~ 25 games) with all-stars around the corner. He plays about 5 months out of the year. He has spun a few curves (go easy on me) but received "the talk" after his last outing (prior to knowing about the soreness/pain). I'm a big changeup proponent -- mainly because of the effectiveness of the pitch -- but this will be added ammo in my backing.

I'll be calling my ortho on Mon. to schedule an appt. Hopefully it's just irritation/inflamation but we'll see.

Good.

It doesn't sound like your son is playing too much (that is exactly how much my son plays), but what people have to realize is that certain kids can be very vulnerable to problems at certain points in their lives. If they happen to play a lot of games, or do a lot of throwing, at the same time they are going through a growth spurt, then you can run into these problems.

Hopefully this is the case with your son, and it will just be a one-time problem.

Based on the info you have provided, mr, there is a good chance that his mechanics are contributing to the problem. Might do well to locate a top notch pitching coach (which can be very difficult, I know).

MR19 your son should have no pain or soreness ever. Tired is one thing but never pain.

Poor mechanics and lack of proper conditioning are the big culprits in arm injury. Mt son's college summer team has 3 guys with sore arm and they have packed in the rest of the season. The team does not practice or throw pens. These are all high level pitchers who threw very little in college as freshmen and sophs.
I suspect lack of qualified coaching and or instruction. I watched a couple 10-11 yo games this week and I was happy to see the great mechanics and control these guys had. I will also add the coaching was great and very supportive of the young ball players.

Scinc your son is hurting you have to shut him down and get medical advice. There is nothing wrong with CBs unless he is throwing improperly. Some kids have problems with growth plates and others don't. It is up to you to teach your son to recognize when his arm feels funny. Not even pain.

quote:

There is nothing wrong with CBs unless he is throwing improperly.

Excuse me - he is 10 - no way should he be throwing CBs. At 10 years old a 4 and 2 seamer will get the job done - if he can throw a change that would be great.

I do agree that having someone look at his mechanics is a good idea but my son had very good mechanics and still had growth plate issues.

mr19 ... mine had a sore shoulder at 12. He was P,SS,C, but only pitched once a week and didn't throw CB's. His pain was because the muscles of his shoulder were underdeveloped and allowed the shoulder ball to rub the socket when he threw. We went to an ortho who prescribed rest, exercises and a physical therapy regimine. In his case, he was 13 months before I let him back on the mound. So I heartily agree with those advising you to see the ortho.

We learned during that "year off" that baseball isn't very fun if you can't throw, and that it's never too early to concern yourself with arm care. Good luck to your little guy.

This is none of my business, so please decline if you wish. But...could you post what the ortho says?

I'll be making calls tomorrow to see how soon I can get him in. When I find anything out I'll gladly post if just for other concerned parents/coaches in the future.

mr19 - thanks for the offer of posting results but please put a disclaimer that the results are for your son ONLY and all parents should bring the kid to a Doctor when pain/soreness occurs

quote:

Originally posted by BobbleheadDoll:
MR19 your son should have no pain or soreness ever. Tired is one thing but never pain.

Never sore? Huh? If you're never sore, then you haven't worked hard enough. I agree with pain, but not with sore. That just means you've worked the muscle hard enough to build up some lactic acid. You can lesson the amount of soreness, but some is natural.

quote:

Originally posted by Texan:
Based on the info you have provided, mr, there is a good chance that his mechanics are contributing to the problem. Might do well to locate a top notch pitching coach (which can be very difficult, I know).

I agree that there could be a problem with his mechanics.

Do you have a video that you could post?

I have been around 100s of pitchers aince they were 9-10 yo.
Almost all of them threw CBs at that age. We had proper coaching and conditioning from the start. We know about growth plate issues and we had our kids closly monitored by doctors. I wouldn't let my son weight lift until he was 16 but no problem with CBs. He as I have said pitched all year round as well as all the conditioning that goes with it. Live bull pens all winter.
I know a couple kids who had GP issues. One kid who was 6'4" at 13 could hardly walk for about 2 years and yet he continued to pitch and run. After 2 years he was strong as bull. He was also on the JR golf tour and attended HS in Florida at a golf HS. He had great doctor care and his doctor never said he had to stop. I was certainly concerned but he is a strapping 6'6 20 yo. He has dropped all sports except golf but played BB right up to 19yo.
Some of you guys just don't have a clue. My son never had any pain or soreness.

Coacher lactic acid causes stifness and that is why you flush it after you pitch.

Gessshhhhh guys, this was about a dad asking about his 10 year old son, let's not get into the CB and mechanics discussion and get off track.

People (parents and players) come for advice when things are not right. The only real answer should be, seek a doctors opinion.

Thanks.

TPM,
Mr didn't go to a DR.
He came to us for advice.

Because we are all knowing, All seeing, All talking.
Gods of the baseball world. LOL

But you knew that all ready.
EH

quote:

The only real answer should be, seek a doctors opinion.

Amen

Just to clarify, I didn't really expect to hear the answer to my problem on this board. Sometimes you just need a little support/advice from others who have been through the same thing with either their child or a player they have coached in the past.

Given that I had two major shoulder injuries in college due to (IMHO) overuse/abuse of my arm in HS & summer ball, I feel strongly about keeping my son's arm healthy enough to play in a 35 & over league some day -- and I feel like I'm off to a bad start. My guilt (warranted or not), plus the recommendation of this web site by a friend who is a frequent poster, led me to start this thread.

By chance he had a physical scheduled for this morning. Doc didn't seem overly concerned after examining the shoulder and felt he may just have some irritation from doing a little too much. I should be getting a callback from my ortho tomorrow morning and I'll bring him in as soon as they have an opening.

For the poster that requested video. Unfortunately this season I've only videotaped hitting sessions and haven't had the time to get him on tape pitching.